by J. Orlin Grabbe

The triangular trade in early American history involved slaves
picked up from the African coast, transported to the Caribbean to be
exchanged for sugar, and the sugar then transported to the American colonies
to be exchanged for rum.

The triangular trade in modern times involves the exchange of
some third world raw material (oil, gold) or agricultural product
derivative (coca processed into cocaine, or opium processed into heroin),
for first world armaments and high technology, facilitated by cash or a
cash-like intermediary which is laundered through banking or financial
institutions.

Does the current Whitewater investigation simply involve a turf
war, a battle for market share, in the modern triangular trade? Does one
component of this war consist of a feud between families, reminiscent of
the Hatfields and the McCoys?

Think of the parallels between Arkansas and Pittsburgh.

A. Bill Clinton, with the financial backing of Don Lasater and
Jackson Stephens, ran Little Rock like a Mafia don.

B. Richard Scaife, using his own fortune, runs Pittsburgh like a
Mafia don.

A. The friends of Bill Clinton were involved in supplying weapons
to the Contras.

B. The friends of Richard Scaife were involved in supplying weapons
and nuclear-related technology to Iraq.

A. Many of the Arkansas companies involved were represented by
the Rose law firm.

B. Many of Iraq's nuclear suppliers are represented by the law
firm of Buchanan Ingersoll P.C.

A. Faced with media exposure, the Little-Rock based Systematics
(Alltel Information Services), a supplier of banking software, hires a New
York detective firm named Proust and Killman to monitor its critics.
Proust is said to have been sacked by Richard Helms as a CIA renegade.

B. Faced with media exposure, the Pittsburgh-based Mellon Bank,
scheduled to face a RICO-suit for money laundering on August 28, hires a
New York detective firm named Proust and Killman to monitor its critics.
Proust is said to have been sacked by Richard Helms as a CIA renegade.

A. Vince Foster was a behind-the-scenes manager of a Systematics-
related money-laundering project. According to a confidential report,
"When considered in comparison to BCCI in its original conceptual intent,
Systematics is several steps ahead of the capability of Financial General,
BCCI, BNL's grey book operations and any of the CASA de Cambios that are
currently servicing the lesser needs of the covert/illegal money trades
domestically and internationally. To state this very simply, don't own
the bank or the financial institution that has to maintain its accountability
under regulatory scrutiny--own the computers, financial software
and employees which operate the back office for the banks and financial
institutions."

B. Vince Foster, at the time of his death, was in possession of
nuclear-weapons related materials. He had his executive assistant, Deborah
Gorham, place in Bernard Nussbaum's safe two notebooks from the National
Security Agency. One of these was blue, indicating nuclear-related secrets.
NSA's responsibilities include communications security for strategic weapons
systems such as the Minuteman missile so as to prevent unauthorized
intrusion, interference, or jamming, and responsibility for developing the
codes by which the President must identify himself in order to authorize a
nuclear strike.

According to Anthony Kimery, in an article entitled Fostergate
Continued, scheduled to appear in the September issue of Media Bypass
Magazine, on the day of his death Vince Foster left the White House around
1:00 p.m., "to meet a man employed by a company involved in construction
of signals intelligence collection facilities for the National Security Agency
(NSA) . . . Allegedly under investigation by the FBI for contract fraud, the
firm's Little Rock office was where the tag to the vehicle driven by the
man was registered."

A. Hillary Clinton, while one of the chief litigators of the Rose
law firm and wife of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, was a director of
Wal-Mart, said to have been utilized in the Little Rock money-laundering
operation.

B. Hillary Clinton, while one of the chief litigators of the Rose
law firm and wife of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, was a director of
Lafarge corporation, whose Marblehead, Ohio subsidiary Standard Lafarge is
said to have been utilized in the transport network to ferret machine tools
and nose cones out of Pittsburgh and into Canada for shipment to Iraq.

A. The friends of Bill Clinton profited from the cash laundry of
the Bush-Casey linked CIA drugs-for-arms deals (reportedly 10% of the profits
of the laundry), then had a falling out, the bad news delivered by William
P. Barr.

This meeting took place at Camp Robinson, an army facility outside
Little Rock, according to Terry Reed, a CIA subcontractor. Also present
besides Reed were Gov. Bill Clinton; Raymond Young, Clinton's Chief of
Security; Bob Nash, a Clinton aide; Oliver North, in charge of supplying
arms to the Contras; and Felix Rodriquez, the CIA-appointed head of a
related operation in Mexico; Akihide Sawahata, the resident CIA agent. The
meeting was run by William P. Barr, Chief Counsel for the CIA airline
Southern Air Transport, who was representing CIA Director Bill Casey.
(Barr later served as Attorney General under George Bush.)

In Reed's account, Barr said to Clinton: "The deal we [the CIA]
made was to launder our money through your bond business." But Clinton,
Barr said, had been getting greedy. "Our deal was for you to have 10
percent of the profit, not 10 percent of the gross . . . This has turned
into a feeding frenzy by your good ole boy sharks, and you've had a hand in
it too, Mr. Clinton. Just ask your Mr. Nash to produce a business card.
I'll bet it reads Arkansas Development and Finance Authority . . . This ADFA
of yours is double-dipping. Our deal with you was to launder our money.
You got 10 per cent after costs . . . No one agreed for you to start loaning
our money out to your friends through your ADFA so that they could buy
machinery to build our guns. That wasn't the deal . . . Dammit, we
bought a whole gun company, lock, stock and barrel and shipped the whole
thing down here for you. And Mr. Reed even help set it up. You people go
and screw us by setting up some subcontractors that weren't even
authorized by us. Shit, people who didn't even have security clearances.
That's why we're pulling the operation out of Arkansas. It's become a
liability for us. We don't need live liabilities." (Terry Reed & John
Cummings, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA, Shapolsky Publishers,
1994). The Arkansas operation was subsequently transferred to Mexico under
the code name Screw Worm.

B. The friends of Richard Scaife profited from the Bush build-up of
Iraq. Involved are Mellon-related companies Kennametal and Westinghouse.
Did Bush similarly have a falling out with Scaife?

At least in one recent court case we find William P. Barr
representing the Republic of the Phillipines against Westinghouse
Electric Corporation. (United States Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit, No. 93-5672, involving the Republic of the Phillipines and
the National Power Corporation, appellants, versus Westinghouse Electric
Corporation, Westinghouse International Projects Company, and Burns and
Roe Enterprises, Inc., appellees; the attorneys for the appellants were
William P. Barr and David J. Cynamon of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge.)

A-B. Sheila Anthony, sister of Vince Foster, effects a wire
transfer of $286,000 from Mellon Bank to her sister-in-law Lisa Foster,
four days before Vince Foster meets his death.

Finally, consider the case of Jim Norman, Senior editor at Forbes
whose article Fostergate, about the Vince Foster case, was killed by
Steve Forbes, through the influence of Caspar Weinberger, Publisher
Emeritus, whose ex-company Bechtel Corporation got the contract to
build the PC2 petrochemical complex south of Baghdad, which is the
center of Iraq's chemical weapons program. Jim Norman kept his job,
however, and was permitted to publish the article elsewhere. It appeared
in the August 1995 issue of Media Bypass Magazine.

Caspar Weinberger is one thing. Messing with Mellon Bank is
another. Jim Norman now faces the Hobbesian choice of losing his
job or taking a leave of absence (with no return guarantees). His sins? He
sent a letter to Mellon Bank and a memo to his editor Jim Michaels.

First the letter to Mellon Bank.

"12 August 1995

"Margaret Kirsch Cohen
"Media Relations
"Mellon Bank

"Dear Margaret:

"It has been brought to my attention that on July 16, 1993, four days
before the death of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster, his sister
and Justice Dept. Assistant U.S. Attorney, Sheila Anthony, effected a
wire transfer from a branch or affiliate of Mellon Bank in the amount
of $286,000 'and change' to her sister-in-law, Lisa (Elizabeth Braden)
Foster.

"I would like to request the following information.

"From what account were these funds paid? If these funds came from
Ms. Anthony's own account, when and from where did they originate?
Who had signatory authority over these accounts? Was a trust account
involved? If so, who are the beneficiaries and who is the trust officer?
Who at Mellon Bank authorized this transfer? . . .

"Thank you for your prompt response, by letter and fax to 212-620-1873.

"Respectfully yours,

"James R. Norman
"Senior Editor

"cc: Rep. James Leach
Chairman, House Banking Committee

Rep. William F. Clinger,
Chairman, House Oversight Committee

Rep. Newt Gingrich,
Speaker of the House

James Hamilton, attorney"

This letter is said to have generated numerous phone calls to
Steve Forbes.

Now the memo, which led to the choice of unemployment or an
unpaid leave of absence.

"16 August 1995

"to: Jim Michaels
"from: Jim Norman

"Jim:

". . . I feel like I should update you on some developments that are
steadily corroborating key elements of the [Vince Foster] story.
Indeed, since the article has run in a little magazine called Media
Bypass, the story has taken on 'legs' and is about to get significant
attention. I'd still urge Forbes to take advantage of its lead and
print the story. Here's why:

"1.) Since Forbes decision not to print Fostergate, solid evidence has
emerged from credit card and airline frequent flier records that VWF
was making periodic one-day trips to Switzerland. This has been
reported in the London Sunday Telegraph.

"2.) A staffer on Jim Leach's House Banking Committee has confirmed, on
tape, that VWF had a Swiss bank account.

"3.) Foster's former executive assistant, Deborah Gorham, has testified
under oath in a private deposition that Foster had her put two inch-thick
NSA binders in Bernie Nussbaum's safe. This establishes beyond a doubt
that Foster had access to sensitive NSA documents. In fact, my sources
say one of the binders contained presidential authentication codes
required to authorize the use of nuclear weapons or other significant
military action. A copy of her sworn statement is attached. Foster was
not on the routing list for such sensitive documents, did not have a
high enough security clearance for them, and must have gotten them from
someone in or close to the oval office.

"4.) Gorham has also told investigators for Kenneth Starr that on the
day before he died, Foster received a document related to Systematics.
That document disappeared from his office after his death. This is
from a very credible source close to Starr's investigation, corroborated
by other sources.

"5.) Systematics was clearly part of a massive illicit money laundering
operation, according to a report being prepared for Leach's committee
(A copy of the preliminary introduction is attached)

"6.) Although Systematics attempted to prevent the publication of Fostergate
in Media Bypass, the company (Alltel) has not even bothered to demand a
retraction of anything published in the story. Indeed, I have been told
by at least four sources that senior officials of the company are now
hiring criminal legal defense attorneys, and that Alltel itself is
quietly up for sale. The WSJ has offered to help pick up Media Bypass'
legal tab if they are sued (which is unlikely).

"7.) Rep. Bob Dornan, head of the House Intelligence Committee, says he
plans to read Fostergate into the congressional record. I'm doing 2-3
hours a night of talk-radio interviews. This stuff is hot on the Internet.

"8.) If you have any doubts about the ability of the CIA's Fifth Column
to raid foreign bank accounts and withdraw funds, just ask Caspar
Weinberger. Having obtained an encrypted code (KPFBMMBODB) for an
unknown Swiss account, I gave it to [name omitted], who either gave
it to one of his colleagues or personally decrypted the number and
hacked his way into the account at Union Bank of Switzerland in Berne.
They removed $2.3 million, and then left a note with the decrypted
account number in the account holder's mailbox in Maine. It was Cap's.
The total take from his various Swiss accounts, I'm told is in 'eight
digits.'

"The source of this account number was the trunk of arms/drug smuggler
Barry Seal's car. A copy of documents from a suitcase in that trunk
is attached. The clear implication is that Caspar Weinberger, while
Sec. of Defense, was taking kickbacks on drug and arms sales.

"A co-signatory on this account appears to be connected with (a relative
of) Howard Metzenbaum, the retired senator from Ohio. We are talking
about by-partisan payola. Which helps explain why Congress is so
squeamish about investigating this stuff.

"HOWEVER: Newt Gingrich has now ordered Rep. Clinger, head of the House
oversight committee, to conduct hearings into the death of Vince Foster.
Gingrich has publicly stated that to believe Foster died of a simple
suicide as officially stated requires 'gullibility to the point of
stupidity.' . . .

"Pouring gasoline on this fire is the revelation over the past weekend
that Lisa Foster, Vince's wife, received a mysterious $286,000-plus
payment, which came through Foster's sister Sheila Anthony, an Assistant
Attorney General at the time, just four days before Foster's death. This
clearly smacks of a hush-money payment. And apparently Foster wouldn't
take the bait, despite being forced into a tight financial bind from the
loss of his Swiss funds and probably from picking up the tab on all sorts
of incidental Clinton campaign expenses. Faced with the likelihood he
would be the fall guy for Hillary's sale of high-level nuclear code
secrets to the Israelis (through Foster), he apparently threatened to
dump the whole mess in Bill Clinton's lap at a one-on-one meeting set
for Wednesday morning, July 21, 1993. But Foster never lived that long.
. . .

"Jim, we are sitting on the most important story of the past 50 years.
And one way or another, it's going to come out in a massive way. I
wish Forbes would stand up and do its journalistic duty, no matter what
bogus claims of national security may be invoked. This is corruption of
the highest order.

"I have read in the Baltimore Sun that your official explanation for not
running the story was concern over some of my sources. That was a
legitimate concern in the early stages of this effort, and I shared that
concern. But as time has passed and corroboration mounts, you cannot
continue to use that excuse. As I said when I first delivered this story:
Forbes has become a little bit pregnant. Either it is going to birth
this troublesome baby or it is going to have one hellovan abortion on
its hands. The questions as to why Forbes has refused to run this story
are going to mount and mount, and I have no effective answer. It is
getting harder and harder to bite my tongue and refrain from disclosing
the real reason this story was killed, as revealed by a certain high
level official with the company: that it was Cap's doing. Frankly, it
is the only plausible reason I've heard so far, and a disheartening one.
This enterprise has come face-to-face with a crucial ethical problem.
How it handles it will reflect for a long time not just on Forbes
Magazine, but also on the man whose name is on the cover.

"I sincerely urge you to reconsider and to do what is right.

"Jim Norman x215"

In conclusion, I have just one question for Mr. Jim Michaels:

Mr. Michaels: Do you really think burying this story does
credit to a former member of Wild Bill Donovan's Office of
Strategic Services (OSS)? I think you have one hell of an
abortion on your hands.